[Oztrich Boy]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Gareth Morgan has a simple dream: a New Zealand free of pet cats that threaten native birds.

1. It's not just pet cats. More native birds are eaten by feral cats. Banning law-abiding cats won't affect illegal cats.

2. It's not just cats. New Zealand has lots of introduced bird eating mammals

• Rats and mice, which eat native birds
• Brush Tailed Possums, which eat native birds, also mice
• Ferrets, Stoats, Weasels, which eat native birds, also mice, rats
• Cats, domestic and feral, which eat native birds, slso mice, rats, possums

No I agree native birds are getting the raw end of the deal, but what needs to be considered is: take out the top predator, will you help the birds all that much?

My solution: introduce foxes, to eat the cats. (or maybe not)

[Kenny Bunk]

Back during my careless youth in paleolithic times, I and several other feckless utes, highly trained boy scouts all, were retained by the management of a game preserve to off feral cats, doubtless left by summer people, who were wiping out ground-nesting game birds.

Each Ute was issued a Hi-Standard .22 and boxes and boxes of LR hollow-points, and with a minimum of adult supervision (that'll tell you how long ago this was) we were set to our grisly task.

Several thousand rounds later, the score was Utes 3, cats a whole lot more. Cue the shotguns. 12 Ga, No. 6, Field Loads. Scores climbed. Feral kitties declined. Ground-nester game birds wiped out by several brutal winters in a row, new generation of summer-people-drop-off cats back in control.

Maybe coyotes are the answer? The Aussies have a ferocious feral cat problem, feral pig problem, feral goat problem, rabbit problem, fox problem, mouse problem, rat problem, etc. Perhaps they ought to be consulted?

[Salamander]

“1. It’s not just pet cats. More native birds are eaten by feral cats. Banning law-abiding cats won’t affect illegal cats.”

States have banned the ownership of legally obtained and maintained reptiles because of a problem in one isolated area, even though the snakes pose *absolutely no danger* in those states.

See how this works?

How many people freaking out over this were all for banning snake species/pit bulls/’scary dog breeds’?

If you don’t defend the rights of other people’s pet choices, don’t cry when they come after your preferred pet.